A year spent living in Madrid ignited my passion for Spanish food and the food served in Tapa would certainly not have been out of place in the sun-drenched Plaza Santa Ana, where I whiled away many a pleasant afternoon with friends and a caña or two…

Keep an eye out for the July edition of Bite where you can see the review in print and read lots of other exciting foodie related stories.

When I lived in Spain I learnt to cook authentic Indian curry. That’s right, curry. I lived with an American and an English-Indian girl and most Sundays we took it in turns to cook for around 10 other TEFL teachers in our tiny little flat in the suburbs of Madrid. And in a small way it felt just like being at home.

Curry is easier to make than most people think, once you know the basic spices you can play around a little and try out different combinations of spice or different bases – tomato, coconut milk, yogurt or cream – whatever you’re in the mood for.

I love to cook curry for groups of friends, because you can make a big pot and everyone can just help themselves to as little or as much as they like. Here is one of my favourites…

1.) Firstly, pop the garlic, chopped chillies, turmeric, cumin, ginger, peppercorns and some fresh coriander into a bowl and use a hand-held blender to mix into a smooth paste. Alternatively use a food processor.

2.) Put the chicken into a dish and make sure it’s all nicely covered with the paste then pop in the fridge for two hours to soak in all those lovely flavours.

3.) Pop the oven on at 220C and, once heated, stick the chicken in to cook for around 45 minutes. Check occasionally and jiggle about the chicken to ensure it’s thoroughly cooked. For the last 10 minutes, put the chicken under a medium grill to get a nice golden finish.

4.) In the meantime, cook the basmati rice for 7 minutes, then drain. Add two bay leaves plus the butter – place a teacloth over the pot and leave to steam for 20 minutes.

5.) Check the chicken is completely cooked i.e. not pink in the middle, then serve up and garnish with a coriander sprig or two.

A nice, cold Indian Pale Ale straight from the fridge is the best accompaniment to this warming curry – dig in!

It was an unusually chilly 5th of May, but that didn’t stop us packing up our camping gear and heading up north to the first ever Brew at the Bog festival at the lovely Bogbain Farm, just outside Inverness.

Now I could tell you about the scrumptious beer, my new found love of red ale 5am Saint, how we danced away the cold (almost), the relatively unknown new bands I discovered and what a quirky, unique venue the fairy-lit Bogbain Farm was.

But this hungry weasel had something else on her mind – churros.

Churros come from Spain and when I lived in Madrid I loved nothing better than a 5am jaunt to the famous San Ginés Chocolateria for a post-party snack.
Strips of fried pastry, covered in sugar and accompanied by a pot of thick, melted hot chocolate for dipping – what’s not to love? So when I clocked the Churrio stall at Brew at the Bog my heart did sing a little.

Without exaggeration, the churros were just as good as those I had coveted in Spain. The dipping chocolate was just the right amount of bitter to balance the sweetness of the churros themselves and so warming to my already-numb hands. The only difference was that Churrio had added some cinnamon to the churro batter, but this worked really well.

After hours of dancing, we finished the night with some much-needed fish and chips, and of course the Edinburgh girl in me had to go for salt and sauce.

It would have been great to see some food on offer made with Brewdog beer itself but as this was the inaugural Brewdog Festival perhaps I was expecting a little too much. But, hey, there’s always next year…

For coverage of the ACTUAL BEER check out the wonderful musings of aletotheking.